Review of Headhunters (2011) by Amilcar A — 27 May 2012

I have not seen many Norwegian movies in my life. I saw one about Nazi Zombies and another one about giant trolls. Both were actually pretty good and while neither was Oscar worthy, both entertained me and made me laugh.

Headhunters is a big departure and it's a pretty great movie. It's based (loosely) on reality and the story is very smart, full of details and really immerses on the nuances.

Roger Brown is a headhunter that uses his talents for more than placing executives. He is a pretty serious criminal but for some reason he turns out to be somewhat of an anti-hero and the good guy. He is full of secrets and deception and is truly addicted to some seriously expensive stuff.

Without revealing too much, he gets into some massively serious trouble that is coordinated with the precision that you only see in 007 villains. How a mid level executive is supposed to navigate his way around this is truly inexplicable.

Eventually and through some major spells of luck and smarts, Brown survives the ordeal, straightens his life and seems to have his shit together. A more normal person would probably need to flee the country and require decades of therapy but he deals with it much like I deal with a mild toothache.

Great movie. Highly recommendable.